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Travel Report Costa Luminosa - 7 Nights Greece And Adriatic - September 2017


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Costa Luminosa - 7 Nights Greece And Adriatic - September 2017

 

Venezia - Trieste - Corfu - Katakolon - Mykonos - Dubrovnik - Venezia

 

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'Costa Luminosa' is a classic cruise liner, 8 years old, with a more traditional form, compared to newer ships. Interiors appeared to me like some sort of 'Art Deco', with lots of colorful illumination and warm colors. There were always lots of free sun loungers on the spacious sun decks, and the ship did never appear crowded. Everybody on board was friendly, caring and attentive.

 

After arriving at about 11:30am, it took me nearly 3 hours from the port gate through the entire embarkation process to my stateroom, long waiting times again and again, but I was repeatedly addressed in German language. The staff and crew was always doing a good job in talking to their guests in each their languages. The security drill took less than 30 minutes and was held in Italian and English languages; movies in other languages were available on the TV in the stateroom the entire cruise. I found some clocks going wrong on board, and generally, light wear and tear.

 

Since I am a buffet type of passenger, and I generally try to avoid long sessions in the main dining rooms, I did not visit the main dining room. In the evenings, the 'Ristorante Andromeda' was open from 07:30pm to 09:00pm usually, a very limited time for a buffet restaurant, not so Italian like, and there were queues sometimes, since the buffets are arranged on long bars with a narrow alley, not allowing guests to jump. Plastic table ware was used, but the offered food was among the best things on the cruise, although two typical Italian foods like pizza and ice cream were not included in the cruise fare. The gelato bar 'Amarillo' on Ponte 3 Ambra was orphaned most of the time, as well as the Pizza bar in the 'Ristorante Andromeda' on Ponte 9 Acquamarina. Obviously few passengers were willing to spent additional money. Choice of food was very good with a big variety, not just pasta, but also different kinds of fish and meat, even the best possible Bratwurst, always very freshly prepared opposite to the buffets, and very delicious small desserts from the patisserie. The spoons and forks at the buffet had greasy handles sometimes, and food was partially the same for lunch and dinner or dessert and 'La Merenda' on some days. Not so bad, since it tasted always very good. I had the 'Pranzo & Cena' beverage package, since only different beverages for breakfast and tea time were included in the cruise fare. Usually, only one side of the restaurant with each 2 different buffets was used in the evenings, thus there was always more free seating on the other side of the restaurant. At rush times, the restaurant was full, and it was hard for me to find free seating. 'Costa Crociere' offers some very few beverage 'Vending Machines' in the 'Ristorante Andromeda'. The guest can insert the 'Carta Costa' and choose between 6 different refreshment drinks. The given price on the monitor will then either be added to the board account, or was already paid with a beverage package. I tasted cool water instead of the expected lemonade, and was also astonished about the amount that came out of the machine, it filled the plastic cup only half, an estimated of 150ml. The guest can also get beverages at the end of every buffet line in the 'Ristorante Andromeda' at lunch and dinner, manually served by always very friendly staff, a full plastic cup with 250ml to 300ml out of cans or bottles. The 'Carta Costa' must be shown or handed over to the staff for paying therefore, any purchased beverage package is noted with its code on the card. Tap water is free, available from dispensers in the 'Ristorante Andromeda'.

 

The 'Samsara Spa' crew was always very busy with promoting their offers, paper ads were delivered to the stateroom and handed out to guests near the gangway when returning from excursions. Hand disinfection was available at every buffet, but was not taken very seriously by most guests on this cruise.

 

The entertainment program offered something for everyone, every day, with live music sometimes. Entertainment was as multilingual as the entire cruise, a charming Babylonian language jumble. I had purchased the Internet M package with a bandwidth for the entire cruise, and the internet speed was good on board.

 

Excursions; I only booked a transfer from Katakolon to Olympia, the fare was ok, the bus on time, the journey times shorter than announced, but the stay of only 2 hours was too short for an interested visitor like me. Generally, short stays of the ship in the harbors with only one single full day stay at Mykonos.

 

As on most ships, orientation support lacked on 'Costa Luminosa' as well. No port and starboard signs, and no stateroom direction signs in the staircase halls.

 

I learnt after dinner on the last evening of the cruise about the departure procedure for the next morning, about only 3 hours before I had to put my baggage in front of the stateroom door at midnight. Staff at the 'Hospitality Service Desk' was very friendly and gave me an earlier disembarkation slot, since my assigned time was way too late for catching my flight. Disembarkation then proceeded very quickly the next morning. On-board accounting was correct.

 

Thank you 'Costa Crociere' for a wonderful cruise with so good food, charming multilingualism and your warm Italian hospitality on bella 'Costa Luminosa'!

 

 

The full travel report will be available soon in English and German languages - featuring 135 photos, links to useful websites and text that takes about 1 hour to read ...

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  • 3 weeks later...
Find the travel report now at: ! Jan's Websites ! Travel

 

Or use a search engine typing including exclamation marks:

"! Jan's Websites ! Travel"

 

Made for desktop and mobile devices by responsive webdesign ...

 

Some preview photos:

 

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Dear Jan Martin,

 

You travel report, which I read with interest, is one of the best and most comprehensive I have found so far. It is detailed where it matters and full of useful information. Thanks you for producing and publishing it. I have been to Luminosa before but still I really enjoyed reading it.

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Thank you for posting this, we are planning the same cruise in June 2018, but a little bit "scared" of Costa...

 

"No risk - no fun".

 

Nearly 2 million passengers cruise with Costa each year, how many negative reviews have you read from 1 year?

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I am just off the deliziosa and wish we would have done this cruise instead. This was my fourth cruise with Costa and the "worst" so far (still enjoyable but noticed a vast difference compared to my other ones). There was very little to do on board this time (very short music hours, almost no on board activities, lines for everything). There seemed to be a severe lack of bar staff. On all my other cruises we never waited for drinks and on this cruise I never had my order taken while sitting in a lounge, I always had to stand in line at a bar and servers were rare. Very strange! Did you notice a lack of staff on this ship? I was thinking it was because it was the last cruise before they headed to the Caribbean so perhaps there wasn't a full crew or that the ship was sold out. The port stops were all very short too but that's on me for not noticing that when booking lol. I am curious about the Luminosa but now a little hesitant to try other ships because we have had wonderful cruises on the Diadema and the Mediterranea. I know understand what people are talking about when they say ships have passenger flow issues haha. The food was still awesome thankfully!

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